So, am I the only one who is really upset over the television commercials with the happy couples touting how much they were able to settle their tax bills for. "I owned the government $4 million and only paid $1 million." While I understand that law firms are trying to entice business from people, is this the message that we as a society want to send? I can't wait for the "I murdered my wife and was able, through Bob the Lawfirm to get my sentence reduced from death to 6 months probation."
Don't we, as a society realize that it is our obligation to pay for the services we receive? If we all "settled for pennies on the dollar," how would we pay for our military, healthcare (I know), road systems, courts, police, fire, etc.?
When these smiling faces make their "happy" declarations of how much they were able to "save" all I can think of is that I pay my full taxes, so I'm not only paying my share (at the current TOP tax rate) but I'm helping to pay their share as well.
I'd be much happier to see those people who owned $4 million with their faces and voices distorted, showing shame at having gotten into a situation where they owed $4 million that they couldn't pay. At a 30% tax rate, they'd have had to have made about $13 million in taxable money (that's after all their deductions). Now if we assume that about half of the $4 million that they owed was in fines and interest, they still owned about 2 million on about $7.5 million. AND they got away with not paying for a significant amount of time. There was a time in this country when people who cheated others were shamed, but I guess that today they're heroes.
So, according to the commercials, we're supposed to be thrilled that these law-breaking, selfish (not paying their fair share) people, who probably also made some money on the money that they didn't pay in taxes, were able to cheat the rest of us and not pay their fair share.
So people who make a lot of money and scam the system out of their share of the tax burden are heroes, but illegal aliens are criminals. As Yakov Schmirnov used to say, "America, What a Country!"
3 comments:
It is shameful.
However, there are many folks who simply found themselves able to pay their tax obligations. I have no sympathy for those getting millions in back taxes waived, but I do feel for the average person looking at thousands.
What I find really shameful, is the fact that the average person has to hire an attorney to navigate the tax system. It seems outrageous to me that a person has to pay thousands in legal fees to get some assistance or relief?
oops...I meant to say unable to pay
I know that people sometimes have problems. In the '80s I found myself in that kind of situation, owing the IRS about $10,000. But I sucked it up and finally paid them off, in full.
The thing that really bugs me is the GLEE with which these, dare I say it, tax cheats tell us about their pennies on the dollar settlements.
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